30 May 2016

Today would be remembered as the wet day, thunder storms and flooding had made the news across Europe and we were in the middle of the worst of the rain 💦☔️

The rain began at approximately 7am and it did not stop once right through the day even though we drove hundreds of miles.

We thought we might as well make the day a driving day, staying in the van seemed better than being outside. By the time we’d woke and opened blinds in the van at about 9am we were the only Camping Car left in the aire, no-one else was hanging round to get wet.

We set off in the direction of a planned Zoo trip, this should have been the panda bears which formed part of the tour name but none of us fancied walking round getting drenched just to see the Bears so we saved our cash and drove on by.

With no planned destination we grabbed the Camperstop book and searched for a site in a town with hopefully some facilities and bars. We decided heading back towards Calais would be best.

Our first stop was in Ypres, we drove past the Menin gate for a quick photo and parked up for lunch. Unfortunately our van did not fit in the designated camper bays and the local campsite was full so we could not stay for the daily Last Post memorial.

We tried a few more Aires on route up to the coast but none of them looked suitable, we finally managed to find a good stop in Nieuwpoort, in time for dinner, and not far from Calais, but far enough to avoid Migrants.

Worryingly, the very heavy rain and wind seemed to have stripped some of the paint off the bonnet of the motorhome leaving large patches of undercoat. The rain really must have been strong.

After dinner we took a stroll round the town on Nieuwpoort, as we expected on a Monday evening not much was open but we did manage to have a beer and find a shop to buy a plaque to add to our collection.

The next day would see us up early for a 9am rough ferry crossing home and the completion of another successful Tour.

Overnight Location (€11.50) – Nieuwpoort Aire

 

Fully Zoomable Tracker Map of our Entire Trip – https://track.gs/RimBo5

 

The next XXL Trip will be to the Baltic States in July 2016…